"We can't allow things that are inaccurate to stand." — The Word of Our Dan, February 19, 2008.

Saturday, July 09, 2011

The (Very) Changing Face of Labrador (updated)

About a decade ago, a map of the draft Labrador Inuit Land Claims and Self-Government Agreement was in circulation, under the title "The Changing Face of Labrador".

Fast-forward, and here's the summary, in graphical form, of the additional changes to date (click to enlarge): The top part of the legend shows land status pursuant to the Labrador Inuit Agreement. (A small portion of the Ocean Zone north of Killinek is truncated.)

The middle part shows the categories of land status proposed in the draft Labrador Innu settlement. (N.B., a few area of Innu lands on this map are unavoidably sorted behind the Labrador Inuit layer of the map, especially in the area around the head of Double Mer.) Also shown, but not indicated in the legend, are the "Economic Development Areas" as proposed in the draft agreement.

To the south, in yellow and dark blue respectively, are the proposed Mealy Mountains National Park Reserve and the proposed provincial Eagle River Waterway Park, whatever one of those is. Again, the sorting of the map layers superimposes a small portion of Labrador Inuit and Innu land classes over a portion of the proposed parks.

The dark green in western and southern interior Labrador are (approximately) areas which are subject to land claims by the various representative bodies of Innu in Quebec. These claims have not been accepted for negotiation by the provincial government.

UPDATED: The blue line which cuts across north-central Labrador from the Border Beacon area (the "big bend" in the northwestern Quebec-Labrador boundary) to the coast just south of Hopedale, is the northern limit of the Primary Claim area asserted by NunatuKavut (formerly the Labrador Métis Nation.) All of coastal and interior Labrador south of this line is included in the claim which they have filed, but which has not yet been accepted for negotiation.

Not directly shown is the overlap area of Nunavik Inuit rights in northern Labrador, which on land corresponds to the Torngat Mountains National Park. There is also a Nunavik offshore Labrador zone, not shown.

Also not shown is the NunatuKavut (Labrador Métis) land claim; a recent and accurate map of that claim would be gladly received and this map updated accordingly.

(It would be a lot easier to do all of this is The Most Open And Accountable Government In The Galaxy provided open-access GIS data sets. Hint. HINT.)